I need to select an author photo. I have three I'm trying to decide between.

Okay, so first one is probably familiar to a lot of you. It was from my original batch of author photos taken nearly four years ago. Luckily, I still look more or less the same. I didn't use this one for the MTV Books, but I did use it as my author shot when I was a RITA finalist/winner. I still like it lots and lots and lots but perhaps it's time to retire these? (ETA to show what it would look like as a B&W, which is how it would be reproduced.)



Number 2 is a casual b&w that a friend took a couple of years ago. I really like it because of its casualness.



Number 3 is another casual pic, taken by my sister in Miami last year. I can crop it so there's not so much black space around it, but I like the feel of it.



So what say y'all?

(And no, don't have time to get new ones. I need to have this in very soon.)

Poll #1479888 Peektures!
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 56

Which one?

Mostly because my lovely, lovely agent as well as my new! fabulous! editor deserve them.

Dipped in chocolate even.

(What? Don't look at me like that. Once you see them you'll agree with me ::nods::)

We'll start you out gently... Alejandro Fernández, my inspiration for my delicious Taz in Stars.

In leather, 'cause I'm shallow like that



And a new pic in shades that makes him look all sorts of nummy.



Can't leave out poor Jonathan (although I can hear dubious_virtue screeching, "You didn't use the right one!")



Been watching Flash Forward and loving it. Especially love seeing Jack Davenport in a contemporary piece and OMG, all broody and hawt! (although this pic is from a play, it works for me)



( Now, the maybe not quite SFW pics )

This guy I'll leave out from the cut because I'm amused by the champagne bottle. (*is twelve*)



And for my most darling amy37 who also sold yesterday, so we will forever be book twins...

PMA PLACES BARBARA CARIDAD FERRER’S WHEN THE STARS GO BLUE WITH TONI PLUMMER OF THOMAS DUNNE BOOKS

Adrienne Rosado, of PMA Literary & Film Management Inc., is proud to announce the sale of North American rights to young adult novel, When the Stars Go Blue by Barbara Caridad Ferrer to Toni Plummer at Thomas Dunne Books.

From RITA award winner Barbara Caridad Ferrer comes a new novel, When the Stars Go Blue, a reinvention of Bizet's Carmen, set in contemporary Miami against the world of competitive drum and bugle corps. Soledad Reyes is our modern day Carmen, a passionate dancer, who is torn between the attentions of her musical prodigy boyfriend and a charming soccer player, who she can’t help but notice.

Barbara Caridad Ferrer is a first generation, bilingual Cuban-American, whose young adult debut, Adiós to My Old Life (MTV Books/2006), won the Romance Writers of America's 2007 RITA® for Best Contemporary Single Title Romance as well as being named to the 2009 Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults list, awarded by the ALA. Her second MTV Books novel, It's Not About the Accent was released in 2007 with Publisher's Weekly stating, "…this twisting book amply rewards readers."



I know I don't have to articulate exactly what this means to me. Next to Breathe this has been the project that's meant the most to me, not just because of its content but also because of the journey it had to take. My gorgeous, wonderful agent gets her own Cabana Boy (or twelve) for so, so enthusiastically believing in this project and becoming such a great champion for it and as for my new editor Toni, I have been wanting to work with her for ages. It seems kind of perfect that it's on this book.

Finally, When the Stars Go Blue has found its rightful home.

Just a little bit more of When the Stars Go Blue AKA Carmen.

( Read on for those what want )

Revisions, as requested by Madame Agent, are DONE like a done thing. Now, I just need to get through tomorrow without messing with the MS too much and bright and early Wednesday morning, I shall hit "send" on the email.

And because a fresh start deserves something new and shiny and pretty, The Manuscript Formerly Known as So She Dances and affectionately referred to as Carmen has been rechristened.

When the Stars Go Blue

(Thanks to Ryan Adams, Bono, and The Corrs for the inspiration)




Dancin' where the stars go blue
Dancin' where the evening fell
Dancin' in my wooden shoes
In a wedding gown

Dancin' out on 7th street
Dancin' through the underground
Dancin' little marionette
Are you happy now?

Where do you go when you're lonely
Where do you go when you're blue
Where do you go when you're lonely
I'll follow you
When the stars go blue
When the stars go blue

Laughing with your pretty mouth
Laughing with your broken eyes
Laughing with your lover's tongue
In a lullaby

[x2]
Where do you go when you're lonely
Where do you go when you're blue
Where do you go when you're lonely
I'll follow you
When the stars go blue
The stars go blue, stars go blue

About fifty pages left on the revisions. Unless, of course, I go all mental and decide to go back to the beginning and check it one... more... time...

Just to make sure, you know?

I just want it to be as good as it can possibly be. Maybe just... one more pass through?

Right?

Or I should just let the bugger go.

Right.

How about some Cabana Boys, huh?

Okay, then.

So who watched Torchwood: Children of Earth this past week?

Yeah. I know. Russell T. Davies is a bastard. But it was absolutely brilliant. As I told ocvictor, the writer in me was cackling gleefully even as the loyal viewer was emotionally gutted.

Russell, you bastard.

But let's start off with pictures of one of the prettiest casts on television.



And one of the prettiest and sexiest couples in recent memory.



And because I have a ridiculously soft spot for Rhys.



For Cora, no, he's definitely not forgotten...



( More, more, more, including some smokin' hot, possibly NSFW shots. )

So, my next big television event to look forward to is going to be the S3 premiere of Mad Men. Hee! *rubs hand together gleefully* (What does it say about me that I love all these cruel writers? Minear, Davies, Weiner. Cruel bastards, the lot of them.)

So here's a shot of my boy, Jon Hamm.



And a pretty, pretty shot of one of the scenes from last season. God but I love this show. I mean, isn't this just stunning?



Okay, fifty more pages! Unless, of course, I start over again...

AUGH.

Reworking a passage that I've loved through four revisions into something I love even more.

( From Carmen )

Four years ago this weekend (this day, really) I wrote the four thousand word proposal that became Adiós to My Old Life. Two weeks later, it had sold, exactly a year later, on July 4, 2006, it was released.

If you'd told me four years ago that I would be published in YA before adult fiction, I would've probably said, "Shyeah, right." If you would have told me two years ago, (immediately post-RITA, an unthinkable accomplishment in and of itself) that four years after selling my first book, I'd still be waiting to sell in adult fiction, I would've asked where you kept the funny mushrooms.

And of course, if, two years ago, you would have told me that I would have an editor solicit me to write a book, that I would sell into hardcover, and then sixteen months later, it would all be taken away, I would have accused you of being plain mean.

Yet...

*looks back at events of last four years*

All so, so weird.

And yet, this year, I'm essentially free. Perhaps that's the independence I'll be celebrating. Along with continuing my fight to become the writer I want to be.

Symptoms since last Thursday:

Ears- hurt

Sinuses- hurt

Nose- congested with a side of raw, no matter how many Puffs with Lotion I use

Lips- chapped

Tastebuds- in absentia

Fever- comes and goes. Luckily, been fairly rare.

Yet, being a whacked-out Virgo, I've been feeling guilty that we haven't been able to do any summerlike activities. When I mentioned maybe taking the rugrats to the community pool, I got threatened with bodily harm if I even thought about it too hard. All I intended was for them to cavort while I sat in the shade. Yeah... not happening. There are limp dishrags with more energy. So of course, I thought, "Maybe the beach tomorrow..."

Ha!

Two things- the Boy got sick last night although luckily his seems to have been a one-time stomach thingie and it's thundering and raining this morning, which, actually, does it make me a bad Mommy that I'm kind of joyful? This sort of weather makes me feel very calm and happy and actually makes me more productive.

I've got puppies sitting at my feet and I'm making good progress on the Carmen revisions when I'm not utterly out of my head on Sudafed. When I have been too out of my head to work, I've been (gently) shaking my head at Authors Behaving Badly, chapter 472.

Some people really need to stay away from social networking.

However, I want some Earl Grey but don't feel like getting up to make it. I need a Cabana Boy.

This week I started revising the Carmen manuscript (officially) for about the fifth or sixth time. Don't laugh-- I know this is nothing for a lot of people, but generally, I edit and revise so much as I work on an initial manuscript that by the time I'm done with the first draft it's more like a fifth or sixth draft. As a matter of fact, both of my published books were turned in, one editor-requested revision on each, and then done, so this is sort of a new experience for me. Anyhow, my new agent had some really great suggestions that didn't make me recoil in terror (best sign that she is just the Right Agent *g*). For obvious reasons, I hadn't had the heart to look at the MS in ages. Actually, until I started the agent search in May, I hadn't looked at the MS since I submitted it LAST May.

At any rate, where I find myself floundering a bit is in how well I know this manuscript. I lived with it for sixteen months as I worked with the editor at The House That Shall Not Be Named and even after not looking at it for a year, I know it like I know the back of my hand. I know these characters so well-- yet what my agent's asking for is a bit deeper characterization. And I know she's right. My thing now is in trying to find the balance between adding more characterization and not hitting the reader over the head with the Clue By Four. I'm just finding it insanely hard, because of how well I know the MS. I tried working on a blank document, but that didn't work so well. Apparently, I really, REALLY know this manuscript. In other words, it works better for me to have the original doc handy, which keeps me more aware of changes.

I just have this recurring nightmare of making all these changes, but nothing really changing. Or making sense. Or reading like a Dick and Jane book.

GAH.

New name- 1

Chapters condensed- 6 (into three, I think)

Words cut- 6860 (or thereabouts)

Darlings killed- Many, many, many

*pauses to mourn*

Perspective- Lost and presumably wandering somewhere along the Mother Road

Final word count (at this draft)- 81,223

Brain cells remaining- Uhhhhh...

Prayers that it doesn't suck beyond redemption- More than I can count

Draft #4- Done (as of 6:59 PM ET, 5/28/08)

And SO SHE DANCES is born.


Please, to send boyz and chocolate and a brayne and a pony...

It's proving to be near-impossible for us to come up with a title that has Carmen in the actual title that we really love more than chocolate. So we're going back to the drawing board. We're looking at just coming up with a cool title that reflects the story and then we'll have a subtitle that reflects the Carmen origins.

So, I've compiled some titles that appeal to me. Yes, I'm bogarting from song titles because I SUCK so at coming up with my own. So have at it. And of course, as usual, if you come up with something you think really reflects the story of a dedicated dancer who experiences her first love, joins a drum and bugle corps, suffers devastating loss and betrayal, and maybe in the end really discovers who she is and in the process rediscovers friendship and a possible future love, have at it.

Poll #1185648 Carmen Book Title redux
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 21

So, which title(s) d'you like? (Yes, you can choose more than one)

Remember? If the revisions didn't suck? These?




As for your Carmen revision, you've done such a great job this time around! There were so many instances when I literally exclaimed out loud: "Yes!"

*preens*

Heh. Heh heh heh heh heh.

And debg, be on notice, I will be on the lookout for anything that may potentially bop me over the head. And those shoes may just be Super Glued onto my feet. :-P

Thanks so much everyone for all your congrats and good wishes yesterday. I must say, it was quite an amazing feeling, overall, to be done and taking a deep breath and send the little bugger on its way to Lovely Editor (who proclaimed me a rock star—heh).

I had me a celebratory shower and even shaved my legs—woot! And had pizza (six cheese with Roma tomatoes, mmmmm...) And then I collapsed in bed with a book that wasn't mine! And the television! Double WOOOT.

(The Cabana Boys were too tired to do much of anything other than collapse *angles suspicious stare sartorias' way*)

Anyhow, in honor of the book being DONE, I'm going to maybe read some more. Hee! And of course, the paranoia is setting in, so I'll be waiting on pins and needles to hear what Lovely Editor thinks of it.

And because my darling amaliedageek was feeling cranky yesterday and made reference to Persephone with respect to the contrary weather in her neck of the woods, I thought I'd post a little Teaser... erm, Wednesday. It's Wednesday, right?

stephanielynch, I also thought of you when I wrote this section. *g*

Okay, anyhow.

From Whatever CARMEN'S title is going to be...
copyright 2008, Barbara Caridad Ferrer

**

She reached past me to the table while I rolled my eyes. "Oye, Mamacita, maybe now's not—"

"Tranquilate."

There was no escaping the woman when she had that determined aura going yet she had the nerve to be telling me to calm down? But again, she surprised me—instead of handing me the deck she simply turned it over and began thumbing through the cards, obviously looking for something. When she found it, she pulled it out, holding it out to me.

"¿Te acuerdas?"

I nodded and shivered, looking at the Death card, even though I know it didn't literally mean death, and in and of itself, it wasn't considered a bad card. Not a card one could easily forget—especially in this deck, the one with the lovers that she'd used for me so many months back. It was actually an incredibly beautiful, haunting card, depicting Pluto, god of the underworld, with Persephone. Now, you want to talk about a seriously dysfunctional relationship—

"It's the truest interpretation of this card, I think," she said, turning it so she could study the illustration as well. "This myth of love and transformation and rebirth. Of what can happen when one resists change."

She set the card down on top of the envelope with Jonathan's letter and went back to skimming through the deck. "After you went to bed that night, I pulled one more card."

I looked at the card she was showing me, my eyes going wide. "Oh come on, you are so making that up," I declared, cringing almost the second the words left my mouth because she was liable to smack me upside the head for dissing the Tarot… But seriously.

"Desire? Tristan and Isolde?" And their tragic, ill-fated, crazy-making love affair? Please. "Isn't that a little…" I chose my next word carefully, still aware of the possibility of getting smacked upside the head. "Convenient?"

"Do you know which card this is meant to represent?"

I shook my head.

"It is this deck's equivalent of the Chariot. Do you remember what that means?"

"Umm…"

She sighed. "Movement. Fate. Transition."

"And again, I repeat, convenient?"

Now I got the Evil Eye. "I can't control how you feel, m'ija. I'm just telling you what I saw. Whether or not you choose to believe or what you do with the knowledge, that's up to you. Remember—"

"It's just a guide," I finished in tandem with her. "For what, though?"

"That's up to you, too."

I AM DONE!!!!

DONE DONE DONE LIKE A DONE THING!!

Cue the fireworks and inspirational music and cabana boys, because baby, I. Am. DONE!

I hate my working title.

I just thought of one, but I don't know if it makes sense or if it just really sounds good to my exhausted brain.

Once, I Was Carmen

(Lovely Editor wants to really incorporate "Carmen" into the title—otherwise, I'd lobby hard for Roses In My Hands)

I'm hunting deadwines...

This is what I want this story to be. How I want it to make people feel.

Hello?

*echoes around empty blog*

We were told this was the place to be?

Anyone...?







Think we should just wait?

Um... bueno Barbara sent me to sing and dance for you. She said I was much more entertaining than she is at the moment...